Horizons
by Anna Maxwell
Summary: Bobby worries about the future, and what it could mean for his partner.


Title: Horizons  
  
Author: Anna Maxwell  
  
Rating: PG-13-ish ^_^  
  
Disclaimer: They, in their entire wonderful canceled ness, are not mine. Look for me when they go up for auction on e-bay. I don't own the quotes at the end of the story, either.  
  
A/N: Um…I know I have a billion other things I'm working on, but this would NOT go away. *sigh* I get ideas when I drink coffee. Reviews are great, no matter what! Enjoy.  
  
Horizons  
  
It's over.  
  
No, don't say that, partner.  
  
We knew it would happen.  
  
Hold on. You're going to make it.  
  
Only the good die young, you know.  
  
Then you don't count, do you?  
  
Very funny. I'm dying and you're insulting me.  
  
You aren't dying. You'll make it.  
  
Don't pretend, Hobbes. I'm not going to make it this time.  
  
You have to. You don't want me living with all the guilt, do you?  
  
It's better this way. At least, at least…  
  
Fawkes, please, just hold on.  
  
At least I got to go the way…  
  
Partner, please.  
  
I get to go the way I wanted to.  
  
God, Fawkes, don't…  
  
Really, Bobby. I didn't want to die under the knife.  
  
I don't want you to die here.  
  
Can't help it. It's not so bad now…  
  
Fawkes! Stay with me, please, hold on!  
  
Don't feel guilty, okay?  
  
Hold on, Darien…  
  
You're……  
  
Fawkes, oh God, partner…  
  
You're the best friend I ever had, Bobby.  
  
Me too, partner, me too.  
  
Thanks. For everything. Even this.  
  
Fawkes…  
  
You'll stick around, won't you?  
  
Fawkes…  
  
The sun's setting. You see it?  
  
Yeah, buddy, I see it. I see it.  
  
I'll be seeing you…  
  
Fawkes? Fawkes? Fawkes! Darien! Hold on, please…oh, no…oh, God please…I killed him…Fawkes!  
  
Bobby Hobbes shot awake in his apartment, sucking in all the oxygen he could muster without hyperventilating. He ran a hand over his face and tried to even out his breaths. He looked out his window. The sun was just peaking over the horizon signaling the beginning of a brand new day. He was alive and more importantly, his partner was fine. Just fine. It was Saturday. Fawkes would be sleeping till ten.  
  
Bobby got out of bed. There was no way he was going back to sleep. He didn't think he could take the images that would be facing him just under his eyelids. It was a dream, a nightmare, and yet so horrifyingly real. Just out of reach and a day away. Because he knew if one day they couldn't get the counteragent to his partner on time, one day if it came down to Bobby Hobbes vs. Quicksilver Mad Darien Fawkes, Fawkes had made the decision whom would live. And it wasn't the gland-carrying friend he knew and loved.  
  
Hobbes pulled a shirt over his head and went to the kitchen. Now that he thought about it, it really wasn't fair. Not that anyone had ever said life was fair, but it seemed to him that for some people, un-fair came in hugely major doses. For people like his partner. After the first run in with total madness, Darien had mad the request to take a bullet if it ever got out of control again. So far, that hadn't happened yet. And Bobby dreaded the day it would come.  
  
And it would come. It was as inevitable as Christmas or Fourth of July. And he knew who would be behind the gun that would eventually pull the trigger.  
  
Granted, it might not be that situation at all. Claire could find the cure. Be able to take the gland out with no problems whatsoever. She might figure out a counteragent that Darien would never grow immune to.  
  
And man would eat a moon made of cheese soon.  
  
Bobby sighed and poured the remains of his coffee down the sink. It was days like this when he didn't want to think about the future or what could happen tomorrow. The situations he mentally ignored and avoided were the ones that could actually happen. Him shooting his partner, his partner getting killed in the line of duty, or his partner dying while getting the gland pulled out of his skull. Unfortunately those were the situations he dreamed about at nights.  
  
He grabbed a sweatshirt and his keys and headed out to the beach. Bobby liked it out at the beach in the early morning. It was pretty much deserted which gave him space to breathe, and quiet, which gave him space to think. He got there relatively quickly. Not many people were on the road at that hour.  
  
He parked the car and headed down the wide stretch of sand. He chose a spot that was semi-secluded by a small knoll, and plopped down to face the ocean. Suddenly, Bobby wished he could draw, or paint, or write. Something he could do to be distracted. He closed his eyes and wished the time away. Slowly, his body began to relax from its tense state and his mind began to clear itself from the night's demons.  
  
Bobby had nearly nodded off to sleep when he felt a presence sit down beside him. He didn't have to open his eyes to know who it was.  
  
"Mornin' partner."  
  
"Hey, Hobbes." Fawkes replied quietly. "You mind if I join you?"  
  
"Nope. Public beach." Hobbes said.  
  
"What about your personal space?" Fawkes asked.  
  
Bobby smiled slightly. "Welcome to it. Be careful, sanity takes a backseat."  
  
"I'll keep that in mind."  
  
"How did you know where I was?" Bobby asked, finally opening his eyes and looking at Fawkes. As soon as he did he regretted it. The rush of the memories left by his dream flooded into view and he had to look out at the ocean.  
  
Fawkes noticed and didn't say anything about it. He shook his head. "Couldn't sleep. Called you, you weren't home, I made an educated guess."  
  
Bobby forced himself to look at his partner, surprise written on his face. "You guessed I was at the beach when I could have been anywhere in the city?"  
  
"Bobby Hobbes, Saturday morning, in the middle of the city with all the early rising Canadian spies? I don't think so. So I went with half a guess and half a gut feeling."  
  
Bobby smirked. "You know me well."  
  
Darien laughed. "Frightening." He paused. "What are you doing out here?"  
  
The smile disappeared from Bobby's face. "Couldn't sleep."  
  
"Really? Bad dreams or something?"  
  
"Or something." Bobby answered vaguely.  
  
"Come on, man, something brought you out here this morning. This isn't your usual deal." Darien pushed.  
  
Bobby looked up at the sky, still a light pinkish blue, or what his granddad called sky-blue-pink. It was a beautiful sunrise, promising a beautiful day in sunny California. "You ever think about what's going to happen?" he finally asked.  
  
Darien looked surprised. "With what?"  
  
"You, the gland, the agency…"  
  
"Sure. Me, crazy, the gland surgically removed, the agency moving on without me. Pretty simple stuff."  
  
"Darien," Hobbes protested. That was exactly what he didn't want to hear.  
  
Darien sighed. "Well, Hobbesey, there aren't that many options. Which is why I try *not* to think about it."  
  
"Yeah." Bobby agreed.  
  
"That's what you dream about?" Fawkes asked.  
  
"Correction: That's what I dreamt about. Last night, to be exact." He answered.  
  
"You're afraid of killing me." Darien said softly.  
  
"You think?" Bobby retorted.  
  
"Don't be. It's not like I'm going to blame you."  
  
Don't feel guilty, okay? Bobby cringed. "I know."  
  
"It might not come to that."  
  
We knew it would happen. "Probably not."  
  
"And whatever does happen, you'll be there."  
  
You'll stick around, won't you? "I wouldn't be anywhere else, Fawkesey." He whispered.  
  
Darien grinned and looked at his partner. "No one's ever stuck around for me like that before, you know? You know I'd do the same for you."  
  
Bobby nodded. "I know."  
  
"We can't live today in fear of tomorrow. It wouldn't be living. If that day comes, it will come, and we'll deal with it then. But for now, can't we just enjoy living? Even with all the crap we put up with from the Official and everybody else?" Darien asked.  
  
Bobby realized that the questions weren't being totally directed to him and didn't answer. Instead, he put an arm around Fawkes' shoulders and pulled him over a little. Darien rested his head on Hobbes' shoulder and stared out at the water. In the back of his mind, Bobby remembered the phrase; "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend." Vaguely he wondered when it came down to it, which one of them would have greater love. He placed the hand over Darien's shoulders on the side of Darien's head, smoothing back the tousled hair. Protecting and guarding while he could. Out loud he answered one of Darien's questions. "Yeah. We can live one day at a time. Tomorrow's a whole day away." One day at a time, no matter what the next horizon brought them.  
  
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend. John 15:13  
  
There is no greater love than this  
  
There is no greater gift that can ever be given  
  
To be willing to die so another might live  
  
There is no greater love than this.  
  
~Steven Curtis Chapman from the CD "Declaration" song "No Greater Love" 


End file.
